Ides of March Cause for Celebration at the IPE

The announcement of output cuts by OPEC last week led to three dramatic days of trading at the IPE. On Wednesday 10 March, a new record was set of 154,594 lots. This record was broken on Thursday 11 March, with a volume of 157,381 lots and again on Friday March 12, with a volume of 170,320 lots. Leading the way in this explosive growth was the IPE's flagship contract, Brent Crude futures, which set new record volumes on 10 March at 105,040 lots. This was beaten on Thursday 11 March with 112,598 lots traded, with volumes soaring to 131,802 lots on Friday. Lynton Jones, chief executive of the IPE said "The OPEC announcements last week led to a very rapid response on the IPE. The price of Brent, which has languished at levels around USD11 a barrel for the last four months, has now climbed to a level of over USD12.50 per barrel. The ability of the IPE to handle extreme volatilities of this kind is one reason why the Exchange has become such an indispensable tool for the oil markets."